Dream Act backers identify themselves despite deportation risk

by Erin Kelly - Jun. 29, 2011 12:00 AMRepublic Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Twenty-one-year-old Angelica Hernandez stood proudly when Sen. Dick Durbin introduced her to his colleagues Tuesday as the 2011 valedictorian of the mechanical-engineering class at Arizona State University.

But even as the Phoenix resident was being acknowledged for her accomplishment, she was being publicly identified as an illegal immigrant in front of federal immigration officials.

Hernandez and thousands of other college and high-school students throughout the country are increasingly willing to risk deportation for their cause. They call themselves "Dreamers," supporters of the Dream Act. The bill would allow some illegal immigrants, such as Hernandez, who were brought here as children to gain legal status if they attend college or serve in the U.S. military.

Hernandez was one of several hundred young immigrants who attended a hearing Tuesday of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is considering the legislation. She has been an outspoken advocate of the Dream Act in Arizona and was one of about a half-dozen immigrant success stories that Durbin, D-Ill., cited as he urged his colleagues to approve the bill he first introduced a decade ago.

"We're not afraid anymore," Hernandez said in an interview. "I think that coming out publicly is something that needs to be done. I've seen how effective it has been for people to stand up and put a real face to this issue. I think it is a risk, but I think it's a risk worth taking."

So far, there is no indication that young immigrants such as Hernandez have been targeted after speaking out about their status. But some people say they should be.

A spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which opposes the Dream Act, said people who publicly identify themselves as illegal immigrants should face deportation.

"I'm not sure if doing it in the middle of a congressional hearing is the best way to do it, but certainly once people have identified themselves as being here in violation of the law, it's a responsibility for ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to collect that information and at least put them on their to-do list," said Ira Mehlman, the group's national media director.

But Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has other illegal immigrants much higher on her deportation to-do list.

There are an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, and Napolitano said she does not have the resources to catch them all. Napolitano, whose department oversees ICE, told the committee her priority is to find and deport illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes or are suspected of terrorist activity.

She said students who would qualify for legal status under the Dream Act "pose no threat" and would not be targeted for speaking out. Still, she said, she could not give them blanket immunity from deportation.

"The policy of the department is there can be no categorized amnesty, which is why Congress should act (to protect the students)," Napolitano said after testifying in support of the Dream Act.

Her boss, President Barack Obama, has repeatedly called on Congress to pass the law.

Since it was first introduced in 2001, the Dream Act has passed the Senate Judiciary Committee four times. It also passed the full Senate in 2006 but died when the House didn't take up the measure. In December, the lame-duck Democratic House passed the Dream Act for the first time in the bill's 10-year legislative history. It was killed the same week in the Senate.

However, the current Congress is unlikely to adopt the legislation, which Republican leaders in the House have denounced as a form of amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Mehlman said his federation agrees that ICE should prioritize its cases and go after the worst criminals first. But, he said, that doesn't mean they should let young illegal immigrants off the hook because some of them are good students.

"The local police don't stop writing parking tickets while they're going after murderers," he said. "But this administration has made it clear they're not going to enforce the law except against people they consider violent felons."

ICE agents dragging students away from a congressional hearing or rally is not the kind of image the agency wants, said Louis DeSipio, an associate professor of Chicano/Latino studies at the University of California-Irvine.

"I think ICE would try to avoid that role whether the administration was Democratic or Republican," DeSipio said. "It would not only be a public-relations disaster at the time of the detention but throughout the whole process of deporting them."

Public sympathy for the young, accomplished immigrants has helped immigrant-rights groups keep them from being deported even when ICE agents do arrest them, said Frank Sharry, founder and executive director of America's Voice, a group that supports the Dream Act.

"The community rallies to their defense, we get a lot of press, and there is pressure on (ICE) headquarters," Sharry said. "Most of the time, we are able to save the kids from deportation."

Adey Fisseha, a policy attorney with the National Immigration Law Center, said the center has about 45 cases with immigrants facing deportation who would get to stay under the Dream Act. She said many of them were arrested after traffic stops by local or state police who checked their immigration status.

She worries about students taking the risk of publicly identifying themselves. "But they tell me that it's a way of reclaiming their humanity, of coming out of the shadows and owning who they are," she said.

Hernandez, the ASU valedictorian, said she isn't too worried.

"I really find it hard to believe that they would target all of us," she said.

"How would that look if, instead of going after people committing crimes, they go after talented individuals who are going to school and getting educated? It wouldn't look good."